Australia’s Cheaper Home Batteries Program Powers Ahead

A huge number of home batteries were installed across Australia last month, and the pace doesn’t appear to have slowed down during August.

How Many Home Batteries Installed So Far?

At a press conference yesterday morning in Canberra, Federal Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen said 40,004 batteries had been installed in just 8 weeks under the program, delivering 714 megawatt-hours (MWh) of new storage capacity. These figures indicate an average storage capacity of 17.8 kilowatt-hours (kWh).

“This is a success story of Australian households, but not just Australian households; small businesses and community groups as well,” he stated.

The minister said Australians are installing roughly one Hornsdale Big Battery a week under the program. South Australia’s Hornsdale Power Reserve was completed in 2017, originally with 129 MWh storage capacity. So, the claim is a bit optimistic (average: 89.25 MWh capacity weekly), but getting towards it.

Whichever way you slice and dice it, there has been an incredible response. So much so, SolarQuotes analysis indicates the initial $2.3bn funding pool could be depleted well ahead of schedule.

August Installs Look Set To Eclipse July

According to figures released by the Clean Energy Regulator early this month, 19,592 solar battery installations were recorded across the country during July. These installs added up to a total nominal capacity of 344.1 MWh — an average capacity of 18.2 kWh. Based on Bowen’s figures, August appears to be ahead of July in totals: ~20,400 batteries and ~370 MWh capacity, with a few days of the month left to go.

What makes August’s figures even more impressive is a bunch of batteries from July’s figures would have already been in place prior to July 1, as the Program permitted this as long as the batteries weren’t switched on.

This was allowed to avoid a ‘valley of death’ scenario in the industry after the federal battery rebate was announced in early April. Given the generosity of the incentive, which can knock thousands off the up-front cost of buying a home battery system, enquiries and sales would have pretty much stopped dead until closer to July 1 and threatened the viability of some solar businesses.

Minister Bowen said uptake was primarily an outer suburban, regional and rural story. Last week, we looked at some initial numbers provided by the Clean Energy Regulator that indicated the top 10 postcodes for battery installations were all in New South Wales at that point; except for one in Adelaide’s northern suburbs. The NSW postcodes were associated with the south-west, western and north-west suburbs of Greater Sydney, and in regional and other coastal areas of the state.

The Minister also had a message for households.

“I want to thank Australian households,” he said. “You can have all the government policies you like; unless households lean in and participate, then that policy is not going to be successful”.

It’s not just rebate recipients who will benefit, but the wider electricity system as well. The batteries will reduce strain on the grid and put downward pressure on wholesale electricity prices; particularly during peak evening periods — and that benefits everyone.

Home Battery Rebate: The Absolute Basics

Available across Australia, the Cheaper Home Batteries program rebate is available to households, businesses and community organisations also installing a new or with an existing solar power system; to which the battery must be connected.

The scheme currently cuts the cost of eligible solar batteries by around $330 per usable kWh after admin fees and charges¹ and is offered as an up-front discount. The support level is to be reviewed at least annually and will gradually decrease until 2030, after which the program ends.

Systems using Clean Energy Council approved batteries (and inverters) with a nominal/total capacity of 5 kWh to 100 kWh are eligible, but the discount only applies to the first 50 kWh of usable capacity², which is far more than most households would install. The battery must be Virtual Power Plant (VPP) capable, but connecting to a VPP isn’t mandatory.